SQI Installs Two RALI-DX Systems In Toronto Hospitals To Fight The Growing Respiratory Health Crisis In Emergency Departments

Toronto, ON /PRNewswire/ - SQI Diagnostics Inc. (TSXV: SQD) (OTCQB: SQIDF), a leader in the science of lung health that develops and manufactures respiratory health and precision medicine tests, today announced that its Rapid Acute Lung Injury Diagnostic (RALI-Dx™) IL-6 Severity Triage Test has been installed in two University Health Network (UHN) hospitals in Toronto to use as a clinical aid to help assess respiratory patients in the Emergency Department(ED) and as part of a study to help fight the growing respiratory health crisis in EDs.

"This is a timely response to the continuing challenge of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases," said Andrew Morris, President and CEO of SQI Diagnostics. "We believe a respiratory triage test will be a vital tool enabling physicians to manage the ongoing respiratory health crisis in our EDs."

The number of laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario began to rise at the beginning of this year according to provincial data. From January 1 to 7, 2023 there were 7,441 laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 compared to 6,624 from December 25 to 31 2022.¹

"There is currently no suitable diagnostic that can guide clinicians to rapidly assess the severity of a patient's respiratory inflammation and subsequent triage to the appropriate care." said Dr. Shaf Keshavjee MD and Chief of Innovation at UHN, "Importantly, our current study will explore the use of RALI-Dx IL-6 to measure the host inflammatory response in patients with any respiratory illness, and make sure that hospital beds are used by patients most in need."

The Severity Triage test was initially developed to clarify COVID-19 patients' risk. By testing for the presence of the key biomarker Il-6, RALI-Dx^™ helps to identify which adult patients are most at risk of a severe inflammatory response and worst patient outcomes. The intended use of the test is the screening of patients at elevated risk of intubation with mechanical ventilation versus those patients with mild illness and can be monitored at home.

The test was designed by a team of physicians at University Health Network (UHN) and was licensed and further developed by SQI Diagnostics. The company previously conducted clinical studies globally (Canada, US, and Brazil) to assess how well RALI-Dx^™ performs in a real world, emergency department setting. The observed negative predictive value in the RALI-Dx IL-6 Severity Triage Test study is 88.7%, meaning that the confidence in identifying a patient with this screening test as 'not at risk' is high and accordingly this test should have a low rate of false negatives.

Notes:
1. Source: Public Health Ontario.

Background to RALI-Dx IL-6

• The RALI-Dx^™ IL-6 Severity Triage Test and the RALI-fast^™ IL-6 Severity Triage POC Test each help clinicians identify which patients with SARS-CoV-2 will have a severe inflammatory response and should be admitted to the hospital to aid in determining the risk of intubation with mechanical ventilation.
• Both tests measure the critical biomarker IL-6 which plays a key role in the cytokine storm phase of COVID-19.
• The RALI-Dx^™ IL-6 Severity Triage Test delivers results from the lab in about 60 minutes while the RALI-fast^™ IL-6 Severity Triage POC test that is currently in development, delivers results at the patient point-of-care in about 15 minutes.

About SQI Diagnostics
SQI Diagnostics is a leader in the science of lung health. The Company develops and manufactures respiratory health and precision medicine tests that run on SQI's fully automated systems. The Company's tests simplify and improve COVID19 antibody monitoring, Rapid Acute Lung Injury testing, donor organ transplant informatics, and immunological protein and antibody testing. SQI Diagnostics is driven to create and market life-saving testing technologies that help more people in more places live longer, healthier lives. For more information, please visit www.sqidiagnostics.com.

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